Improvement in drying-floors



D. R. MORSE. Drying-Floor.

No. 220,301. Patented Oct. 7,1879.

IE I. III- -i ri-i I F -T- iii-L N. FEIERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, D C

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID R. MORSE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN DRYING-FLOORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 220,301, dated October 7, 1879; application filed August 7, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, DAVID R. MORSE, of the city of Brooklyn, county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and useful improvement in floors and ceilings of woven-wire fabrics for drying and cooling malt and other substances, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a peculiar method of forming drying-floors by joining and securing the edges of sheets or plates of woven wire firmly together, which I accomplish in such a manner that the bearing or utilized surface shall be comparatively even and smooth, and present no obstruction to the edges of a shovel or other implement used to turn, agitate, or lift the material resting upon or against said surface.

In employing woven wire for like or similar purposes, it has been usual to lay the sheet flat, with the edges butted together, and then secured together by a covering of strips of metal riveted over the joint. That system not only obstructs too large a proportion of the air-meshes, but the strips being laid upon necessarily project their thickness aboy e the surface of the wire, and hence embarrass the action of the agitating implement and shovels, which are thus liable to catch against and break away the strips, and if laid below raise the edges correspondingly, so that in either case the wire-work is exposed to injury, which my system avoids,besides avoiding loss of airspaces.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a top-plan, Fig. 2, a side, and Fig. 3, an edge, View of the two parts separate; and Fig. 4 represents a modification of the joint.

My improvement consists in a drying-floor made in sections, united by seams formed by the wire fabric or alone. 1 depress one edge by a narrow strip to a depth below the surface of the fabric equivalent to its thickness, as shown at b, so that when done by a rolling machine, press, or other proper contrivance, and the fiat edge of a second sheet of the fabric is laid thereon, as at c, the two sheets so combined and secured together by headed nails or rivets or otherwise, as seen at 01, will present a strong even-surfaced seam, as needed for such work.

As a modification or alternate of the joint, and particularly when the wire grades, say, above No. 10, I sometimes turn the edges of both sheets, giving one edge two turns and the other four turns, as at Fig. 4, where they are shown united and forming a locked seam without other fastening.

As a further modification or alternate of my system of joint in such cases, I sometimes butt-joint the edges of the wire-cloth over narrow strips of woven wire laid along under the two selvages, and rivet the laps, as before described.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A drying and cooling floor or ceiling composed of sections of woven wire, jointed and secured at the edges in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

D. R. MORSE.

Witnesses:

J. B. HYDE, FERDINAND TUSGH. 

